Did you like it or not? Deus Ex: Human Revolution

This is it! The game I originally envisioned starting this series on. Just finished it, the credits are rolling....what an experience...

This game series completely passed me by. I didn't give it a chance 10 years-ish ago when the first title was released, and when this one came out 2 years ago....I didn't even know it came out! It wasn't until a couple months ago when I was watching a YT video from a guy discussing video games while showcasing a random game he was playing that I learned about this title. After watching his vid I quickly went to seek out more info on it and shortly there after ordered it from amazon.

So here it is, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the game thats all about choice and playing the game how YOU want to play it. The concept intrigued the hell out of me and I couldn't stop discussing it with someone I work with. He quickly said he knew about it but didn't think it was for him. "Too many dark tones" he said. "Don't like dark games" he said. Well with all my raving about the game while waiting for it to arrive....he jumped on kijiji and bought a copy lol. And that rapidly took this experience from enjoyable to over the top fun. As every day at work we would discuss how far we got to, how we managed to over come certain situations, who we killed, who we saved.....the answers were NEVER the same.

The game is as cyberpunk as I could possibly want it to be, right down to the music which I enjoyed so much that I downloaded the soundtrack to my phone so I could listen to it on the go. The music is something you might expect from the movie Tron Legacy. Simply perfect for the overall ambiance of the game.

It wasn't without its flaws though. Some rough facial animations, flickering shadows from time to time and some frustrating boss encounters. Probably stopping the game from being a perfect title in all manners, but I was quickly able to look past it while becoming enthralled in the experience. HIGHLY recommend this game, I look forward to playing it again differently.

Anyway, now I'm just rambling on due to the high I'm on having just finished it.

Stylistically Human Revolution is a stunning game, the different color palettes for the different cities is very cool. The level of detail in the game is impressive, almost any computer terminal you see in the game can be hacked to find something. If you have the right skills there are areas in most of the game stages that you can reach that are other wised locked, even if you lack the skills there's often an alternative way to get past the barrier. This is a game that rewards careful exploration, there are sections of each stage that you might not even find if you don't go into every nook and cranny. This is a game where getting the ability to jump a bit higher or having a lot of points in none combat skills like hacking or lock picking can make a major difference in how hard a stage is.

There are multiple paths through almost any section of the game, you can fight, you can sneak, you can avoid. Except I'm told the various bosses, who are all unfortunately combat stages which is one of the few let downs in the game. I got distracted and hadn't got the first boss yet last time I played and I really keep meaning to go back and get back into it. Tactical choices can have a pretty big impact, letting the wrong character die can lock you out of reward scenarios. One I seem to recall punishes you if you didn't discover a hidden section of the stage and save some hostages you might not have even known about. They aren't important to the story, the game simply continues on without pause, but later in the game that NPC might not be available to help you.

Combat is where people might get turned off. This is a game that actively punishes you for running and gunning, it is very much a cover shooter, and you have to approach situations with a much more tactical frame of mind. If you are trying for a no kill stage the game can be extremely slow paced as you work out patterns and try to get right timing to knock someone out when he can't be seen by another bad guy, or waiting to lure enemies into ambushes. Almost everything you do in combat is resource limited, even using your cybernetics to punch someone out requires energy that has to be scavenged, or used right first time. Getting caught out of cover is almost always a quick way to die. Blowing the stealth can result in all the bad guys in a stage converging on you in short order.

This was one of the games I was most looking forward to for this generation, and part of the reason I haven't gotten back to it is I don't really want it to end. I was even at the SDCC panel for the game, which was an interesting discussion with the game's technical adviser on the state of actual cybernetic research.

I'm told the various bosses, who are all unfortunately combat stages which is one of the few let downs in the game.

This was a concern of mine while reading/watching reviews on the game leading up to receiving it. I think I died at every boss roughly 12 times lol. In some cases I died faster than the loading screen that I had to wait through to try the boss again /facepalm. Alot of the critique was around building a more stealth oriented character and then having to fight impossible odds during the boss fights that "clearly required a more combat approach". Well I'm here to say that isn't really the case.

My deaths usually consisted of the following:
-few early deaths to understand how the boss was kickin my butt
-few deaths trying conventional run/gun tactics
-few deaths learning the room layout and what was in it

Example first boss. I died easily 10-12 times on. And then when I found out what way works, I beat him in about 10secs flat barely taking a hit.

Tactical choices can have a pretty big impact, letting the wrong character die can lock you out of reward scenarios. One I seem to recall punishes you if you didn't discover a hidden section of the stage and save some hostages you might not have even known about. They aren't important to the story, the game simply continues on without pause, but later in the game that NPC might not be available to help you.

Funny you mention the hostages. I completely walked right by them in that stage. Never even found them. They all ended up dying because I never looked for them before completing the stage. But my buddy at work found them, he just failed to save them within a certain time limit and they died for him too lol.

Combat is where people might get turned off. This is a game that actively punishes you for running and gunning, it is very much a cover shooter, and you have to approach situations with a much more tactical frame of mind. If you are trying for a no kill stage the game can be extremely slow paced as you work out patterns and try to get right timing to knock someone out when he can't be seen by another bad guy, or waiting to lure enemies into ambushes. Almost everything you do in combat is resource limited, even using your cybernetics to punch someone out requires energy that has to be scavenged, or used right first time. Getting caught out of cover is almost always a quick way to die. Blowing the stealth can result in all the bad guys in a stage converging on you in short order.

Yes, combat can be brutal. While stage progression is highly praised for the choices you can make. The combat felt very much a choice between either stealth, or cover shooter. Half way through the game I was tired of dying in 1-2 hits if I screwed up my stealth approach, so I spent multiple points in the reduced damage skill tree and even maxed out I still felt pretty squishy if I was caught out in the open.

One of the great games of this gen. Masterful artstyle and colour pallete to showcase the themes of the narrative. The only gripe I cant come to terms with is that the game gives you full freedom to play as you like and after 20ish hours of intricate stealth and no alarms/kills the game doesn't acknowledge your choices at all.
It basically comes down to "press square for ending A, press X for ending B..."

Dishonored is how player choice deserves to be done where the player means something and the world acknowledges your existence and actions

Originally Posted by DarkVincent07

Only thing that I didn't like was the boss battles, they were okay, but seemed very tacked on and didn't allow for much freedom.

I'm keen for another deus ex

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also this

I wonder when a nuclear warhead goes off, does the frame rate of real life drop?

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